Twitter: Home of the TV Spoiler

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Twitter: Home of the TV Spoiler
By Swanni

Washington, D.C. (June 5, 2012) -- Okay, I'm not going to spoil it for you; well, not entirely. But I do have to tell you something for the purpose of this article:

In last Sunday's episode of Mad Men, a character dies.

I know this not because I have watched the episode. I know it because I use Twitter, the 140-character spewing feed of insights and trivialities from the famous and the anonymous.

For some reason, your average Tweep (Twerp actually seems like a better word here) feels compelled to tell the world about what he or she just witnessed on television. If you're watching the show at the same time, that can be pretty interesting. What your tweepy friend has to say can often be enlightening and informative and enhance your enjoyment of the program.

But if you haven't watched the show yet -- but are planning to do so later on your trusty DVR -- the real-time divulging of crucial plot facts can trigger a violent reaction on par with anything Mike Tyson has ever manifested. You want to reach into your Twitter Time Line and pull out the larynx of the offending party.

It also doesn't help that our nation of Tweeps continue to pepper their followers with more revelations in the days following the original airing. So if you think you're being clever by not looking at Twitter for the first 24 hours after the show airs, you're not. You're actually screwed and destined to never enjoy the show the way you were meant to. That is, unless you like to know everything about a program before actually watching it.

So who are these spoil sports of the spoilers?

They run the gamut from A to Z, depending upon the show. But let's look at some of the guilty parties who spoiled Sunday's Mad Men, for me at least.

Just today, CNBC anchor Carl Quintanilla (@carlquintanilla) tweeted: "Killing (character name) was the most agonizing thing we've ever done," quoting two Mad Men writers.

Thanks so much for that, Carl.

@TheDaily -- Rupert Murdoch's iPad magazine -- chipped in with this: "He met his end on Mad Men, but (character name) hints to us that Peggy might be leaving with him."

Thanks, Rupe.

Michelle Ruiz, a reporter at @TheDaily, tweeted: "(Character) hints that Peggy is just as dead to Mad Men as he is."

Thanks Rupe and Michelle. It's a 'Daily' Double.

And that's just a sampling. During the show itself, the Twitter universe was overflowing with tweets revealing who died, how he died, and what he did before he died.

Tweeps, I realize that many of you view Twitter as an extension of your conscious thought, almost a stream of consciousness at times. But in the future, please give some consideration to your fellow tweeps and keep the spoilers to yourself. Certainly you have the creative powers to comment on a show without revealing everything about it.

Social media has done wonders to bring people together. But it's time that some practitioners of social media remember a few things about social etiquette.

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Phillip Swann is president and publisher of TVPredictions.com. He has been quoted in dozens of publications and broadcast outlets, including CNN, Fox News, Inside Edition, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Chicago Tribune, The Financial Times, The Associated Press and The Hollywood Reporter. He can be reached at swann@tvpredictions.com or at 703-505-3064.

Click TVPredictions.com to read more news and features on TV technology.

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